Steven Rhude - Paintings/Drawings

Watermelon, o/p, 24" x 24", Steven Rhude  Painting for sale through the artist. stevenrhude@ns.sympatico.ca "Watermelon is a word that tells you what is wrong with the climate change debate. For some libertarians, it is the insult that expresses what greenies and climate scientists are really up to. Behind all the acronyms and the jargon, they say, is a conspiracy to promote a nakedly political aim – anti-big business; anti-free market; pro-tax increases. In short, green on the outside but red on the inside." - James Randerson There is a power to still life painting that will always prevail - that is the way metaphor can energize a discourse with something a simple and apparently as innocent as a watermelon. I find it fascinating that certain colours have been applied to political issues (think flags). "Greens, reds, blues, pinks", the list will expand as our social views congeal. Steven Rhude, Wolfville, NS

Circles of Rembrandt, Wolfville, o/p, 24" x 50", Steven Rhude  Painting for sale through the artist. Inspired by the mysterious circles used by Rembrandt in his famous self portrait, the sun and moon in a Wolfville setting strikes me as a sensible place to start. When an artist co-opts the use of the circle, not only as an aesthetic, but a symbol in western art ranging from the social order to the heavens, Vasari's famous proverb comes to mind. "...Pope Benedict IX of Treviso sent one of his courtiers into Tuscany to see what sort of man was Giotto, and of what kind his works, having designed to have some pictures made in S. Pietro. This courtier, coming in order to see Giotto and to hear what other masters there were in Florence excellent in painting and in mosaic, talked to many masters in Siena. Then, having received drawings from them, he came to Florence, and having gone into the shop of Giotto, who was working, declared to him the mind of the Pope

Installation photo of AGNS Yarmouth show "Capture". Works from left to right:  "Olympia with her Buoys", Steven Rhude,  "Parade", Susan Garvey, "Self Portrait", Richard Davis Steven Rhude, Wolfville, NS

Steven Rhude, Wolfville, Nova Scotia

August Cod, 51.5" x 39", oil on canvas, Steven Rhude Detail Recent commission. Steven Rhude, Wolfville, NS